Coelho uses a number of narrators to flesh out Athena's story, and these differing perspectives add a real depth to the story line. As a reader, you like some narrators and dislike others, which gives you the ability to take what you like from each and leave the rest, creating your own picture of Athena as you go. That said, me as a writer, I also try to understand myself better, and the only way that I have to understand myself better is by sharing myself with myself, meaning, that I have to write and when I write, I understand what is inside of me in an unconscious level, then I think it is also part of the human condition to somehow divide your feelings with other people so you feel that you're not alone. Mr. COELHO: Because my dream was to be a writer, so success that is a gigantic and I thank God for being so successful. My dream was to be a writer or - then a writer writes books, so I have to write books.

Athena had the secret desire to become a saint someday. She had everything one can ask for, and yet it didn’t satisfy her restless soul. Her adopted mother, who was always ready to take care of her, give her all the love and comfort she could and want to see her win in whatever she does though didn’t understand her. Early marriage to a man she meets at a London college, her son birth, leaves church on which she had deep faith from her childhood. Is the world of sight, sound, and touch—the rational world —sufficient for you? Or do you seek another kind of reality, the one, perhaps, that Athena offered?A tale spun in a way that gets you thinking and then rejoicing. A necessary "hearing" quite revealing, amazing, thrilling and well done! Paulo writes with a passion to transform. This tale uncovers the feminine side of God. A MYTH = A dance with a thought that never was. THE WITCH OF PORTOBELO = An allegory, or Cohelo's tremendous interpretation of a meaning other than a literal definition. YDSTIE: This theme of searching for your true self and opening yourself to the energies of the world is a recurring theme in your work, why is that? The Virgin (and I’m not speaking here of a sexual virgin) is the one whose search springs from her complete independence, and everything she learns is the fruit of her ability to face challenges alone. Never once did I sympathize or care what happened to Athena or Sherine or Hagia Sofia (all one person), and that is the worst flaw a book can contain. Insult was added to injury when all the other characters weren't any more significant to my senses.

Narrated from multiple points of view, the portrait of Athena that emerges is as provocative and spiritually complex as one would expect from the author of The Alchemist (1993) and The Devil and Miss Prym (2006).Throughout the novel, Coelho’s words verifies the phrase: “How do we find the courage to always be true to ourselves—even if we are unsure of whom we are?” Mr. COELHO: I totally agree. I totally agree. And I think that religion, like the Catholic Church, is a body that it is our life and changes, it does not change fast but it changes. So I would say that at the end of 2,000 years - 200 years, you will not be here, I will not be here. But somehow A, they're going to allow women to celebrate the Mass, which is forbidden today; B, they are going to allow priestess to marry, which is also forbidden, and finally, they were to understand that somehow the Virgin Mary is the manifestation - the way that we you worship the Virgin Mary is the manifestation of the feminine face of God. My decision is for anything that I have to do in this life. So if I see this presence of the feminine face of God around instead of trying to follow what the Catholic Church says, I should be more open.

The Virgin (not speaking of sexual virgin): One whose search springs from her complete independence and everything she learns is the fruit of her ability to face challenges alone.As the book begins, Athena is dead. How she ended up that way creates the intrigue sustaining the book. [2] The child, Sherine Khalil renames herself Athena after her uncle was discussing with her mother on how her real name will betray her origins and something like Athena gave nothing away. As a child, she shows a strong religious vocation and reports seeing angels and saints, which both impresses and worries her parents.

Through a series of interviews, multiple characters explained their experience and connection to her. We uncover pieces of who she was through different perspectives. But did anyone really know her? All her life, she felt a constant void that continuously nagged at her soul. The biggest question she consistently pursued an answer to was this: who am I? Coelho sets out a framework for thinking about Athena and our own lives through the the character Deidre O’Neill, a doctor also known as Edda and a teacher to Athena. Coelho is the founder of the Paulo Coelho Institute, a non-profit organization funded by his royalties that raises money for underprivileged children and the elderly in his homeland of Brazil.

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Would Athena's life have been more meaningful, more useful, if she had, as Andrea McCain suggests, joined a convent and devoted herself to a life of service to the poor? I have always had a very strong spiritual sense, rooted in the Catholic teachings, as this is how I was raised. I genuinely find comfort in the rituals of the religion, but find myself very at odds with the "Church" and it's doctrine as defined by mortal men over the centuries. Our main character had aspirations for her life and thought she knew what would bring her happiness. Athena went off to college and found young love, then dropped out of college, got married, and had a baby – it was all part of her plan. But something was always missing. Athena was unsettled within her marriage and the restrictive rules of the church that inhibited her search for God and herself. While venturing to understand it all, she discovered spiritual guides along the way that brought her closer to the answers she was looking for.